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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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"Now they understand," Caleb said calmly, turning his horse back toward the road leading to Saint Denis. "Let's go around the area for making our camp, boys. We have an invasion to finalize." The sixty riders closed ranks behind their Don, their dark coats flapping in the winter wind as they rode away, leaving the Grays completely trapped in a nightmare they could not wake up from.
Back down at the sprawling, blood soaked entrance of the Caliga Hall plantation, the absolute, paralyzing silence that had followed the four impossible sniper shots was finally, violently broken.
Meanwhile, Tavish and Leigh snapped out of their shock. The sheer, horrific reality of what had just happened crashed down upon them like a collapsing roof. Tavish, his pristine, expensive linen suit completely ruined and plastered with the dark crimson gore and brain matter of his own gate captain, fell to his knees in the red dirt.
He began dry heaving, his hands shaking uncontrollably as he tried to wipe the blood from his face, only managing to smear it further into his graying beard.
Leigh Gray was in no better shape. He stumbled backward, his polished shoes slipping in the pooling blood of the mercenaries, his chest heaving with frantic, shallow breaths.
The surviving ex Confederate mercenaries and the plantation farmhands finally reacted, but not with bravery. They broke ranks, scrambling behind the brick pillars, hiding behind wooden supply wagons, and pointing their outdated repeaters at the empty horizon where Caleb's column had already vanished.
"Clear them!" Tavish suddenly shrieked, his voice cracking hysterically as he pointed a trembling finger at the four headless corpses leaking into the driveway. He was yelling at the top of his lungs to the other guards and mercenaries. "Get these bodies out of my sight! Clear this area up right now!"
The guards rushed forward to drag the heavy, bleeding corpses away, but Tavish wasn't finished. He stumbled to his feet, grabbing his brother Leigh by the lapels of his coat.
Tavish and Leigh let out a stream of panicked, terrified curses. The arrogant facade of the Southern aristocracy was entirely gone, replaced by the desperate, cornered panic of men who realized they had just picked a fight with a god of war.
"Listen to me, Leigh!" Tavish barked, his eyes wide and bloodshot, spitting as he spoke. "You need to get to town right this second! You need to contact the people of our backers staying here in Rhodes! Tell those eastern suits what just happened!"
Leigh shook his head, his teeth chattering. "Tavish, they'll abandon us! They didn't sign up for a slaughter!"
"Make them understand!" Tavish roared, shaking his brother violently. "Inform them that the Don of Saint Denis realizes exactly what they have done! He knows they funded the hit! Tell them that we absolutely need their help, their men, and their money to handle the Don and his army. Because if it is just us fighting him, we will definitely lose!"
Tavish gestured frantically toward the spot on the horizon where the sniper shots had originated. "Did you see what he just did?! Don McLaughlin himself is personally involved in this battle, and they have numerous of those new types of weapons! They have repeating rifles that fire faster than we can blink, and guns that shoot from a mile away! If we don't get heavy reinforcements from the easterners, they will kill us all in a matter of seconds!"
Realizing that his brother was entirely right, and that their survival hinged entirely on the deep pockets of their corporate shadow backers, Leigh Gray nodded his head rapidly. He shoved Tavish's hands away, turned on his heel, and ran frantically toward the plantation stables to get his fastest horse, desperate to reach the Rhodes telegraph office and the parlor saloon where the eastern fixers were staying.
As the Grays descended into a chaotic, terrified frenzy of defensive preparations, Caleb and his men were nowhere near Saint Denis. They had no intention of riding all the way back to the city only to return the next day.
Caleb had turned his column off the main dirt road, leading his sixty heavily armed riders deep into the dense, heavily forested terrain of Scarlett Meadows. After navigating through the thick pine trees and avoiding the main trails, Caleb and his men found a absolutely perfect place to camp.
It was an elevated, rocky ridge surrounded by thick timber, completely obscured from the main roads but offering a commanding, elevated view of the valley below. It was a highly defensible position, boasting natural choke points and heavy tree cover that would completely hide the smoke of their campfires.
The capos immediately dismounted and set to work with military efficiency. They established a tight perimeter, tying the warhorses to picket lines deep in the brush. Vincenzo and Silvio quickly posted lookouts equipped with the Vanguard rifles equipped with scopes, ensuring that no Gray patrols could accidentally stumble upon their staging ground.
After making camp and ensuring the perimeter was completely locked down, Caleb wasted no time. The sun was beginning to dip lower in the sky, casting long, bloody streaks of orange and purple across the Lemoyne horizon. He had a war to choreograph.
Caleb went to lead a highly detailed tactical discussion for the plan of attack that would officially begin against the Grays at the break of dawn.
In the center of the camp, several heavy wooden ammunition crates were dragged together and pushed flat.
A large, highly detailed map of the town of Rhodes, the surrounding Scarlett Meadows, and the sprawling Caliga Hall plantation was placed on top of the discarded crates, creating a sturdy makeshift war table. Four oil lanterns were lit and placed at the corners of the map, casting a warm, flickering light over the faces of the syndicate's most lethal commanders.
Gathered around the crates were the absolute elite of the Thorne empire. Arthur stood to Caleb's right, his massive arms crossed over his chest. Vincenzo and Silvio stood to the left, their faces grim and focused. Joining them were John, Javier, Bill, Sean, Lenny, and Sadie, all of whom had ridden out with the capos to ensure the destruction of the Grays was absolute.
Several of the high ranking Italian capos, the men who would lead the individual squads, were present as well, leaning in to hear the Don's commands.
Caleb stepped up to the table, resting his gloved hands on the edges of the map. His piercing blue eyes scanned the faces of his lieutenants, entirely satisfied by the cold, professional murder written in their expressions.
He reached out and tapped the map, beginning to choose several specific, vital locations to begin the coordinated attack and takeover of the county.
"We do not just hit the plantation, and we do not just hit the town," Caleb stated, his voice a low, vibrating hum that commanded absolute silence in the camp. "We hit them everywhere, all at once. We shatter their communication, we break their defenses, and we overwhelm them with sheer, unapologetic firepower."
Caleb placed a heavy brass bullet casing on the town of Rhodes, another on the tobacco fields, and a third right on top of the Caliga Hall main house.
"But before we establish the routes, hear this command, and hear it well," Caleb ordered, looking directly at the trigger happy men like Bill and Sean. "I want the guards, the ex Confederate mercenaries, and the town lawmen on the Grays' payroll to be completely, utterly cleared out. You drop anyone holding a gun. But you absolutely do not kill any of the Gray family members."
Arthur frowned slightly. "You want them taken alive? After they tried to put a bullet in your head?"
"I want Tavish and Leigh Gray breathing when the smoke clears," Caleb confirmed, a dark, terrifying smirk crossing his face. "Because I want to talk with them for the final time. I want them to stand in the ashes of their empire, and I want them to look me in the eyes as they realize they have lost everything. Death is too quick for them right now. I need them alive to sign over the deeds to their land before we put them in the dirt."
The men nodded in unison. The mandate was clear, slaughter the army, spare the leaders for the executioner.
After that rule was established, Caleb opened the floor. He asked for their suggestions on the plan of attack, wanting the seasoned combat instincts of his lieutenants to refine his strategy. He asked for input on the direction, the exact timing, the sniper positions, and the flanking maneuvers.
"If we hit the main gates of Caliga Hall directly," John Marston pointed out, tracing a line on the map, "they'll bottleneck us. They've got heavy wooden barricades set up. They'll just pour rifle fire into the driveway."
"Then we don't use the main road," Sadie chimed in, her eyes gleaming in the lantern light. She pointed to a dense patch of woods on the eastern edge of the tobacco fields. "There's a dry creek bed that runs right up to the curing barns. If we take a squad through there on foot, we bypass the main gate entirely and pop up right in their backyard."
"Good. Sadie, you and Arthur will take the right flank through the creek," Caleb decided instantly. "Arthur, take two men with Sweepers. When you breach the curing barns, you lay down a wall of continuous fire. Pin them down."
"What about the town?" Javier asked, tapping Rhodes. "If we hit the plantation, the sheriff and his deputies are going to ride out to reinforce them."
"They won't get the chance," Vincenzo rumbled, his scarred face looking demonic in the shadows. "Silvio and I will take twenty capos into Rhodes. We will surround the sheriff's office and the parlor saloon where those representative of the backers are hiding. We will lock the town down. Nobody leaves, nobody reinforces the plantation."
"I'll take the center," Caleb declared, looking at the main approach. "John, Bill, Lenny, and Sean. You are with me. We will take the main road. We will hit those barricades head on. While Arthur flanks them from the barns and the town is cut off, we will punch a hole straight through their front door."
The tactical exchange was a masterpiece of lethal planning. They spent the next hour detailing crossfire angles, reload cycles for the Sweepers, and fallback positions. They did so with a terrifying, mechanical efficiency, and after the discussion ended, every single man knew exactly where he needed to be when the sun came up.
Before dismissing the war council, Caleb stood up straight. He looked at the hardened killers surrounding him. They were outnumbered by the Grays and their mercenaries, but they possessed a technological advantage that the world had never seen.
Caleb gave a small, powerful speech to light up the spirit for everyone, his high Charisma radiating an aura of invincible authority.
"The men waiting in that plantation think they can hide behind their wooden fences and their old money," Caleb began, his voice echoing softly but powerfully through the pine trees. He looked at Arthur, then Vincenzo, then Sadie. "But they have absolutely no idea what is coming for them in the dark. Throughout history, the greatest empires did not fall because they lacked men, they fell because they lacked the vision to see the future."
Caleb paused, invoking a quote from history about winning a war to seal their absolute resolve.
"From a book I gained through an eastern book, a man called Sun Tzu wrote that victorious warriors win first, and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first, and then seek to win," Caleb quoted, a fierce, unbreakable light in his blue eyes. "We have already won this war. We won it in the factory in Saint Denis. We won it when we forged the weapons you are holding. Tomorrow, we do not go to fight a battle. We simply go to collect our victory. Get some sleep, gentlemen. Tomorrow, we take the South."
A low, unified murmur of absolute, bloodthirsty agreement rippled through the men. The speech had worked flawlessly, they were vibrating with the anticipation of the slaughter.
After that, the war council was disbanded. Everyone went to have a small amount of free time. Men sat around the cold camp, cleaning their Vanguard rifles in the dark, meticulously loading the heavy fifty round drums of the Sweeper submachine guns, and smoking quiet cigarettes.
The tension was thick, but it was the tension of a coiled viper. Soon, the camp grew entirely silent, and everyone went to take a rest, sleeping with their weapons resting across their chests on the cold, hard ground.
The night passed, silent and freezing.
The next day, the sky slowly began to bleed a pale, bruised gray as dawn finally broke over Scarlett Meadows. A thick, heavy southern fog had rolled in off the swamps, blanketing the red dirt roads and the sprawling tobacco fields in a dense, ghostly white haze.
It was the absolute perfect cover.
The coordinated attack begun.
The sixty men of the Thorne syndicate moved out of the ridge camp like a silent, heavily armed shadow. There was no shouting, no bugles, and no warning. They split into their designated squads perfectly. Vincenzo and Silvio took their twenty capos and peeled off toward the sleepy town of Rhodes, disappearing into the fog. Arthur and Sadie, leading their flanking squad, slipped quietly into the dry creek bed, moving like ghosts through the thick brush toward the Caliga Hall curing barns.
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Name: Caleb Thorne
Age: 23
Body Attributes:
- Strength: 8/10
- Agility: 8/10
- Perception: 9/10
- Stamina: 8/10
- Charm: 8/10
- Luck: 9/10
Skills:
- Handgun (Lvl MAX)
- Rifle (Lvl MAX)
- Firearms Knowledge (Lvl MAX)
- Past Life Memory (Lvl MAX)
- Knife (Lvl MAX)
- Blunt Weapon (Lvl MAX)
- Sneaking (Lvl MAX)
- Horse Mastery (Lvl MAX)
- Poker (Lvl MAX)
- Hand to Hand Combat (Lvl MAX)
- Eagle Eye (Lvl MAX)
- Dead Eye (Lvl MAX)
- Bow (Lvl MAX)
- Pain Nullifier (Lvl MAX)
- Physical Regeneration (Lvl MAX)
- Crafting (Lvl MAX)
- Persuasion (Lvl MAX)
- Mental Fortitude (Lvl MAX)
- Cooking (Lvl MAX)
- Teaching (Lvl MAX)
- Trilingual Language Proficiency - G, I, & C (Lvl MAX)
- Inventory System (Permanent - 100x100x100)
- Acting (Lvl MAX)
- Alcohol Resistance (Lvl MAX)
- Treasure Hunter (Lvl MAX)
- Drugs Resistance (Lvl MAX)
- Business (Lvl MAX)
- Leadership (Lvl MAX)
Money: 2,772 dollars and 60 cents
Inventory: 283,392 dollars and 61 cents, 11 gold nuggets, 74 gold bars, 1 Double Action, 1 Schofield, 2 Colm's Schofields, 1 land deed (Parcel), 1 Mauser, 1 Semi Auto Pistol, 1 Lancaster Repeater, 1 Old Wood Jewelry Box, 1 F.F Mausoleum small brass key, 1 Ruby, 1 Braithwaites Land Deed, 1 Broken Pirate Sword, 1 Milton's Safety Deposit Key, Proof Of Marlin-Thorne Firearms Co., 10 Dynamites, 1 LeMat, 1 M1899, 1 Carcano, 1 Ownership deed of Doyle's Tavern, 3 Diamonds, & Important Documents & Deeds Of Cornwall
Bank: -